You know it's bad when you have "make a list" on your list...

Yep, that's right folks, I've lost it. I have officially moved on to 100% wedding mode. It consumes my thoughts. Unfortunately, I have a lot of other things that are occupying many of my thoughts as well. I am in quite a conundrum because I have so much to focus on and can't seem to focus my full attention on any one thing.

But, this blog is to talk about the wedding, and not my other life woes, so here's what's going on with the wedding...

Sara and I have some pretty good ideas about what we want to do for invitations, cake, food, decorations, rings... The invitations are going to be a bit of work, but are scaled down from my original plan. :-) My original plan involved probably one hour on each invitation. Yes, I know, I'm crazy. We have already established this. My scaled down idea will be much easier. I need to relinquish a bit of control and realize that I can allow others to help and it will be okay. Part of me is worried about letting others help because what if they don't do it perfect? I think others are also afraid to volunteer to help because they know I can be a bit anal. I need to find a balance.

One thing I am willing to relinquish a lot of control on is food. I sent an email yesterday to some friends and family asking if there is any appetizer-type food that they would be willing to provide. So far no response, but it's only been 11 hours. I know the wedding is four months away and some people may not understand why I'm asking this so early, but I need to feel like I have one aspect of the wedding under control. If I know that certain individuals are bringing food then I will feel more comfortable. I'm not willing to just "see what falls into place." I have enough anxiety as it is. Sara understands this and is doing her best to help with this. She has a lot of supportive friends and I'm sure that she can get a few that will be willing to provide some type of appetizer. If anyone reading this wants to provide something, please just email/comment/text/call Sara or I so that we can put you on the list. If you need ideas, we can provide those as well.

We decided we need to go look at the Cascade Garden again and determine what decorations we will be needing. We have some ideas. And, of course, our 1000 cranes. What's the crane count now? you ask? Well.... it's about 133. we have a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way to go. Sara and I need to get down to some serious crane making business. In order to get all the cranes done, Sara and I have to make roughly 5 cranes each per day. We better get craning!!

Wedding favors... I think we're the most set there. I think I've told people that I'm doing a candy table. We have most (possibly all) of the jars/containers. I have some ribbon to decorate them. And we have all the stuff to put together the containers. WOO HOO! We don't have the candy, but that's not something we can get this far in advance, otherwise I would eat it all! I'm feeling comfortable in this area. Hooray!

Flowers... AHHHH! This is probably my biggest area of anxiety. Originally Sara and her sister had this idea to go to Pike's Place Market the day before the wedding in order to get a bunch of flowers there and put stuff together the night before. While I love this idea, I think it may be the wrong time of year to rely on Pike's Place. When we were last there I asked what type of flowers they had available in October...they said dahlias. That's ALL they said. Um..... while I agree that dahlias are beautiful, I would like more than just dahlias. In fact, I have this vision of having red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple flowers. I think the green is just going to be the greenery, but the other colors I would like to see.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! This is stressing me out.

Ok...I need to turn my focus on to other things. It will all work out. It will all work out. Sara and I have agreed to talk wedding tonight.

We also need to narrow down our guest list.... It seems as though we are hearing left and right that people aren't coming to our wedding... FINE THEN! If you don't WANT to be there, then we don't want you there! This is a celebration of our love and committment and if you can't handle that, then stay home. Ok... I feel better getting that out.

Thoughts are swirling ....

So ....

There are 4 months until the wedding and there is so much left to do.
There are thoughts and plans that are swirling in our head and they desperately need to be put into action. However, putting them all into action requires money! Ugh! Money does not come easily. Can someone find me a darn money tree??!

We finally thought of an idea for our wedding cake ... Actually, we have a clear vision of what we want. There is one thing ...one significant thing... missing --->someone to make the cake. We have an idea of someone, but I have to figure out how to contact her and see if she wants to make this cake. And...guess what...it requires MONEY!

We have a photographer...and thank goodness she is patient, because I don't know what we would do if she wasn't.

We do have the location reserved and paid for, and we have the time set. Woo hoo hoo!

A list needs to be made.... and money needs to be gotten....
Our mind needs to switch to wedding focus.

We will get there.
Time to go get to work. Focus on work....focus focus focus.
Can't I just take the next 4 months off and plan the wedding?!? :-)

1000 Cranes ... and other updates

It's been a while since I last wrote, but that doesn't mean that there hasn't been any progress on the wedding-front. We've been doing several little things...and some big things.

We made our final decision on a photographer - Sara Gettys. We met with her and it sounds like it's going to be a great fit. We are going to do our engagement sessionat Multanomah Falls (in Oregon) sometime in July. We will be incorporating Logan into the engagement session and also doing some pictures of just Sara and I. We are very excited that our photographer is so agreeable to working with us.

It's so good to have several of the major things out of the way.... We also paid for the Cascade Garden (our wedding/reception venue). That was a huge chunk of change, but it's nice to know that it's paid for.

Yesterday we got some good news. Sara's Uncle Jim and his family have purchased their tickets for October. Hooray! It is becoming more and more apparent that Sara's mother has no intention on coming to the wedding... She can't even acknowledge the wedding at this point. It's nice to know that Sara will have family representation at the wedding. We know her sister will be there, but other family is nice to have as well. Hooray for Uncle Jim, Melia, and Cameron!!!

The title of the post mentioned 1000 cranes.... Yes, we have decided to make 1000 cranes for our wedding. It's going to be great. We are doing them in all of the colors of the rainbow. I know we will get sick of them, but at this point they are fun to make. Cranes are a symbol of honor and loyalty, so they are perfect for a wedding...making 1000 is an ancient tradition, so there you have it. The colors also have symbolic meaning. We are currently at 34 ... LOTS more to go. Unfortunately we can't even illicit help from others because the couple is supposed to make all of them. It';s a good thing we started early. :-) We will keep you all updated on the crane count as we go.

We've been making little decisions and purchases as we go. If we buy stuff a little at a time it won't hit us like a ton of bricks.

We are also doing very well at saving.... We opened a savings account and get rewards from the bank based on our Visa purchases. In the last month we have earned roughly $40. Yay for the bank. :-)

I think that's all for today.... I will probably updating a bit more often now that we're starting to make purchases and decisions.

Photographer -- check!

Well...we have made a big decision in our wedding planning! Hooray! We have hired a photographer... Sara Gettys. She will be doing an engagement session with us in July at Multanomah Falls. We are very excited about that. She has even agreed to include Logan in some of the pictures since we have no family photos. That will be exciting. We still have several details to work out in the way of photography, but those will all be determined once we determine the details of the actual wedding. We are very exctied about Sara's work and know that she is going to capture the important aspects of our wedding - the small details and the bigger picture.

With the decision of our wedding photographer we have also started to do some other planning...in our heads. :-) We need to get those plans on paper and move forward with this process. Every couple of days we are asked how the wedding planning is going and I see genuine disappointment when I have nothing to report. :0) Our next step is to find someone to make our cake. We have several possibilities, but need to nail it down. We hope to do this within the next couple of weeks. I dont' know that we're sure what we want for cake, but we will get there.

We have also talked about food a bit ... appetizers vs. lunch. Our wedding time will be determined by the decision on food.

And rings.... we need to order those soon if that's what we want.

Wow! So much to do and our lives are only getting busier. It will all work out...

I know that we are going to be relying on the support of our friends throughout a lot of this. So... here is our question to everyone...

What talents, skills, abilities, etc. do you have that you would like to offer? :-)

Thank you to everyone for your amazing support during this exciting time in our lives.

Supporting Gay-owned Businesses

Well ... there is a bit of progress on the wedding front. Hooray!

We have written two different lesbian women who own businesses - one is a photographer and one designs jewlery. We have written emails expressing our interest. I have talked on the blog before about the photographer. We have just been in contact via email before, but we want to meet in person to discuss a bit further to see if she is the right photographer for us.

As for the rings, we saw a design by Jude Sharp that we like. You can view her jewelry at www.jasharp.com . She makes custom jewelry. I like that idea because then others will not have the same design as we will.

With all the close-mindedness we have already dealt with, we are excited to support gay-owned businesses!!!

I will keep you all posted... I took a bit of a break from wedding planning, but I'm back to business!!!

I will never understand...

Every bone in my body wants to scream! I refuse to change my wedding date. I refuse to let individuals ruin my wedding day. I will not let it happen.

I received a text message today... Sara's mother is definitely not going to be coming to the wedding - she has made other plans for the day. This is Sara's special day! Would she be doing this if Sara was marrying a man?! I don't know if Sara's father or brother are coming...

Why is it so hard to understand that Sara and I are getting married?? Why is it so hard to understand that we are having a wedding that is just like any other heterosexual couple???

I want so much to say swear words in this email, but I'm doing my best to keep that under control....

Sara deserves to be able to have a special day. She should be able to have her PARENTS at the wedding! Why?! WHY???

I will never understand...

Another One Bites the Dust ...

We are down one guest without even sending an invitation... Wow! I guess that will save us one invitation. When another family member told this person that they would be getting an invitation, their response was basically to tell us not to bother because they wouldn't be coming anyway. Wow. Very nice. Family never ceases to amaze me.

This is OUR special day and I refuse to let ignorant people ruin our day. People that come are those individuals that support us - regardless of whether they support our lifestyle. I'm not asking people to agree with what we're doing. Of course, that would be the ideal thing, but I know that not everyone agrees with the lifestyle we have. Love the PERSON! Regardless of anything in my life I am still a PERSON. And, I'm happy!

I had a friend tell me the other day that if people weren't nice I should just tell them to "suck it." I'm getting closer and closer to this!